A/N: Bonus points to my buddy Nazran for guessing the name of Danny's belts! Drkphoenyx, all is forgiven. Now, there are some things that I would like to clarify about the future of this the story. The first is that Danny is not, I repeat not a bad guy. He's just a jerky guy. And as for the questions about when this or that will happen, my answer is that I honestly don't know. This story is progressing faster than I thought it would, but at the same time slower. So both you and I will have to wait for the next chapter to find out what happens next. On that note, reviews encourage and invigorate me. I will not hold my story for ransom, but the more reviews I get the faster I will work. Chao!

Also, one line indicates change of perspective, two lines indicate change in time and/or a change of perspective.

Teamwork

"You want my credit card? What for?" Vlad knew that Danny wasn't interested in money, so he had a hard time figuring the teen out.

"I want to start a bookstore, full of arcane books that I can study. I fully intend to pay you back."

"Hmmm…very well. However, I have three stipulations."

"What are they?"

"The first is that you give me your midmorph DNA, so that I can make a perfect son."

"No." Danny wanted the credit card, but he was not going to fuel Vlad's obsession with him.

"But…Danny…I need a child, an heir! And seeing as you clearly aren't interested in being it, I need to create one."

"You already had a child, a child who loved you, and you didn't care for her, so you lost her. You had all these chances, but you messed them up. Nobody else."

Vlad looked like he had been slapped, while Danny didn't look at all different. He mulled over what he told him, thinking it through…

Robin was annoyed. And tired. But mostly annoyed. Four days ago, they had last met Phantom. Three days ago, Starfire and Cyborg argued on whether he was good or bad. Two days ago, Cyborg told him that the data trail was cold. He could not get information of Phantom from the internet. One day ago, he called all of his contacts to get everything he could on Phantom. Today, he only got one thing from all of his contacts: a single newspaper clipped.

'Hero' Danny Phantom Kills Six

Today, in the little town of Amity Park, resident of the used to be hero Danny Phantom, experienced tragedy today. After a series of ghost attacks, each one stronger then the last, a menacing adult figure that looked like Danny Phantom (some believe this to be his father) tied up Sam Manson, Tucker Folley, Mr. Lancer, Maddie, Jack, and Jasmine Fenton to the unstable boiler of the local Nasty Burger. Soon after, the younger Danny Phantom appeared, and a fight of epic proportions took place. After a long and arduous fight against a clearly superior opponent, Danny Phantom came out on top. However, right after he won, he turned to the boiler and shot it himself, causing an explosion that killed the six individuals tied to it and orphaned young Danny Fenton. Afterward, perhaps because of Danny Phantoms change in temperament, all ghost attacks ceased. Long time fan, Paulina Sanchez, claims that this all a big misunderstanding and that Phantom is, in fact, a hero.

The fate of the young Danny Fenton is largely unknown. All that is known is that he was official adopted by long time friend of the family, Vlad Masters. Afterwards, he seems to have disappeared off the face of the world. Mr. Masters was unavailable to comment.

Robin was very annoyed. He had so many conflicting reports that he didn't know what to think. Starfire said he saved her. Cyborg said he baited him. This clipping said he killed six! Robin didn't know what to think. He needed to clear his head.

As Robin left his room, he saw Starfire in the hallway. He smiled. They were having a fun time talking until they entered the living room and saw Cyborg, Beast Boy, and Raven arguing about the T.V. remote. Robin could tell this was going to be a long day.

Finally! Sunday! Danny leaned back in his chair. After his confrontation with the Titans four days ago he was really upset. He didn't get how they could create a 'super team'. Phe. How dare they claim the title of 'hero' when they attack somebody who just insulted them and their teamwork? If they did that every time, then the male teenager populace would suddenly plummet. He had to continue with his meditation just to keep his anger under control, and even then just barely. He eventually discovered a mantra that really helped him calm down. "Azarath metrion zinthos." He didn't know why, but just chanting those words helped calm him down.

Danny was deep in thought when his stomach growled. Despite the fact that the store was closed for the day, he blushed. He was decided to go out for pizza. After all, even depressed super teens can't say no to pizza.

Ah, pizza. Danny was slightly less sad then usual as he climbed on up. That changed, however, when he saw the Teen Titans sitting around a table, reading a menu. He resolved to not get involved in some inane super fight today. He had enough of those four days ago. He turned around and was about to leave when someone called out his name.

Robin was sitting down when he caught sight of a familiar black head of hair. That was Danny, the kid who beat him! Robin was not one to let a lost fight keep him down, however. He wanted to see what he was really capable of. And, with any luck, kick his butt in exchange for the concussion he got the other day. Besides, he's been following leads for the last four days. He needed a break, and a good fight might be just the key to clearing his head.

"Hey, Danny!" Danny pretended he didn't hear a thing and continued to walk away. He didn't fool Raven, though. She could feel his annoyance. She instantly recognized his unique repressed emotions from the bookstore. She decided, despite her better judgment, that she was curious enough to intervene. She summoned a black wall in front of the exit.

Danny was annoyed. Why was it that every time he beginning to feel calm, these stupid 'hero's' intervened! He took a couple of deep breaths. "Azarath metrion zinthos." He didn't notice Raven raising an eyebrow as she overheard him. "What," he said in a curt voice.

"I was just wondering if you would like to join us for pizza." At the looks from the other members of his team, he explained. "He was the one that faced me in the kung-fu exhibition."

"Really?" Beast Boy asked, over eager as always. "How long did he last?"

"Now, now B.B." The half mechanical Titan said. "It's not polite to ask for the details of someone's defeat." Robin looked away, nervously. He didn't think this through enough to realize that if Danny did join them, the tale of his defeat would be known to his team mates.

Robin looked a Raven and with a motion of his hand, singled her to cut off the wall. "If you don't want to join us, Danny, you don't have to."

Danny suppressed a chuckle. So, the 'hero' leader of a 'hero' team didn't tell his friends what happened four days ago? If he did this right, this could be hilarious. "Actually, I think I will join you. After all, how often does a 'normal' kid like me get to eat with 'heroes' like you?" Only Raven heard the slight inflections in his speech. She decided to not pursue it…yet.

As Danny was walking to the table, Robin sweat dropped. Danny allowed a slight smirk to cover his face, tilting his head in such a way that only Robin could see it. This was going to be an… interesting meal.

Robin was worried. Just four days after Phantom insulted their teamwork, Danny showed up, and he clearly wasn't going to let him live this down. Robin internally cursed his shortsightedness. This was going to be an… interesting meal.

Danny sat down and asked, "So. What are we having?"

Cyborg immediately took the initiative. "We're having the all meat experience!"

Beast Boy cut in, "Uh, no. We're having tofu. No meat."

"Come on, man! You can't deny me the human necessity of meat!"

"Dude! I've been most of those animals!"

Danny put his head in his hands, and rubbed his temples. This conversation was hitting a very sour spot in Danny. He didn't want to be reminded of Sam and Tucker. Not here. Not now. Not by, phe, 'heroes'. He decided to take thing into his own hands.

"Look. I'll pay for an extra pizza if you two just. Shut. Up." The two Titans heard the dangerous edge in his voice and, even though they didn't believe he could do anything to them, decided it was not a good idea to aggravate someone needlessly. Especially if he was willing to pay for pizza.

Raven was impressed. Those two normally went on for at least ten minutes. That, and she could feel the boiling sadness, disguised as anger, boiling up inside of him. She was glad that his wall didn't break down; she didn't know what those two red eyes that she faced in the bookstore were, but she did not want to find out.

After the awkward silence that followed Dannys' angry declaration, conversation slowly picked up again. The two more astute members of the group, Robin and Raven, noticed that Danny didn't say any more words then was necessary; he skillfully deflected conversation from him to the other five teens at the table. Then the pizza arrived. And things went downhill very quickly.

After Beast Boy finished up his first slice of his meatless pizza, which Cyborg eyed in disgust, he triggered what would be remembered as a very interesting conversation. "So, how long did it take for you to lose?"

Robin sputtered out the drink that he was sipping. "Come now, Beast Boy. Surly Danny doesn't want to tell us about the fight." Raven could feel he was nervous and decided to pay a bit more attention to the next few minutes.

"Oh no, Robin, it's just fine. I'd be glad to tell Beast Boy just how long the fight lasted."

"Oh, I don't really think that is necessary…"

"I insist."

"No, really. We came here to relax, not to talk about fights."

Danny smirked. "Well, why don't we let the rest of your little team voice their opinions?"

"Really, I don't think…"

"Come on, Robin, we just wanna hear a little story." Cyborg said. He could tell something was up, and he wanted to know what.

"Yes! Please tell us about the whopping of the posterior!"

"Come on, dude! If Danny wants to tell us, I think we should let him!"

Robin turned to Raven in desperation. "What do you think, Raven?"

"I don't care."

Beast boy jumped on this chance. Figuratively, not literally. "Well, if nobody cares, then let's hear what happened."

Danny gave a feral smile. "My pleasure." Robins' head dropped onto the table. He doubted that he would hear this down. "Now, the first thing that you must understand, is that we both were told to use only Kung Fu. So, we both were under a major disadvantage."

As Danny started the story, he very skillfully managed to tell the tale of their fight without once mentioning a name. He quickly had everyone's, even Ravens', attention. He managed to keep them entertained for a good half hour.

"By now, we had both given as good as we got. One of us had the upper hand, so the other decided to do an incredibly dangerous move to win. He was running forward, committing his muscles to a round house kick. However, at the last minute, he pushed all of his momentum to the opposite direction." Cyborg raised his eyebrows. That was an incredibly dangerous move. Muscles were not supposed to do that. "He rolled around, and just one minute after the start, I knocked out Robin in one punch."

Danny smirked as Robin hid his face, leaning back, and waited for the explosion to start.

The effect was instantaneous. There were mixed reactions across the table. Robin was embarrassed, Beast Boy was impressed, Starfire was confused, and Raven and Cyborg were both quiet, processing the information.

Starfire, who did not believe that Robin could lose, said, "I demand a rematch! Robin would not have lost in a fair fight!"

Everybody picked up at that. Except Danny, who was staring at Starfire distastefully. 'Blind trust in anybody, especially a hero, will lead to betrayal.' He decided to prove to her that their 'perfect leader' was not, in fact, perfect.

"Fine." Everybody licked that. "However, I demand that certain rules will be in place."

Cyborg didn't like the sound of that. "What kind of rules?"

"Just a few. Fists only. No tools, and no body armor. The first one to get knocked out loses. Also, this will not be public."

"To the knock out? Isn't that bit extreme in a friendly fight?" Danny slowly tuned to stare at Cyborg, staring him straight in the eyes with such intensity that Cyborg forgot for a second that he was the super teen.

"There is no such thing as a friendly fight." Danny got up and walked off. "Come get me at my store when you're ready. Raven knows the way."

Robin wondered at that intensity. No normal human could put so much intent behind a glare. Batman could, and so could he and Cyborg. What had Danny gone though?

Meanwhile, Raven also wondered about the enigmatic teen. With that glare, she had expected Danny to emanate raw anger. Instead, she felt less emotion then she ever had from a human, as if there was a terrible finality in that statement. She shook her head. Danny made no sense.

On a nearby roof, a pintsized human spoke into a receiver; "The scuzz buckets are finally alone! Let's show these snots what Hive Academies' A Team can do!

"Grah!" Danny punched a wall in his lab. He was, to say the least, upset. He was upset because the Teen Titans didn't get what it meant to be a hero. He was upset because he nearly lost control of himself. But he was most upset that he agreed to fight Robin again. What kind of idiot was he? He had to stay OUT of the hero scene! He learned that after his venture into the land of heroics. Danny breathed in, then out. In, then out. Danny sighed. He had work to do

"Ok…done." Danny said, as he finally finished up his new ecto-gun. It was supposed to drain ecto energy and store into a battery, to be latter released as a destructive beam. He fed some of his energy into it and aimed at one of the targets. He steadied his hand, and positioned himself so that he would be ready for any kickback that he might experience. He pulled the trigger, and…

*BOOM!*

Danny coughed as he made his way upstairs. "Damn it! Another failure!" He punched his hands on the desk. He needed to discover the secret to ectoplasmic energy! He had too! Danny sighed, realizing that he was in no position to continue his research. His emotions were jumping all over the place. He transformed into a ghost and phased through the ceiling, intending to meditate on the roof.

"So, that's your plan?" Raven asked, clearly showing that she didn't approve. "You do realize that to get them to roof, they need to be distracted, right?"

"Yes." Robin said with confidence. "Cyborg, did you complete the upgrades to the tower?"

"Why do you want to… oooh, I see where you're going. No, I didn't."

"What! You said that it would be done yesterday!"

"Well, yah, until someone told me to go research a dead-end trail!"

"Great. Just great."

"What seems to be the problem, friend Robin?" Starfire was watching her two friends argue, and she didn't know what to do.

"Like Raven said, we need to distract that team of super villains. I was planning on using Cyborgs' upgrade to cause C.D.'s to fly, doors to open and close, and to just generally freak them out. Without Cyborgs' upgrade, we have no way to do that."

Starfire was thinking. She remembered how not-friend Phantom could move things with his mind when he was meditating. She also remembered how much her friends disliked him. "I…think that I know someone who could help… but I do not think that you would like it…"

"Starfire," Robin said, staring at her, "We need to get our tower back. Who can help us?"

"…"

"Star. Tell us who he is."

"…Not-friend Phantom."

Danny was relaxing, floating on the roof of his store. "Azarath. Metrion. Zinthos." That is, until a meek voice spoke up behind him.

"Not-friend Phantom?"

Seeing as the interruption was not sudden or loud, Danny did not fall over like last time. Instead he just turned his body all around and opened an eye, showing a glowing green, like his belt. "What do you want?"

Starfire was unusually shy as she stood in front of him. "Well, my friends… the Titans… we could use your help…"

"No." He closed his eye and tuned back around.

"But we really need your help!"

"And I don't care."

"But you could save the Tower!"

"And, once again, I don't care."

"But you're a good guy!" Danny zoomed to her, both of his angry eyes open.

"I am not a good guy. That is the first thing you gotta learn."

"But you saved me!"

"And next time, I might be the one to put you in danger!"

"No! You are a hero!"

Dannys' eyes flashed red. "The first rule of heroes is that there are no heroes. There are only kids and villains." Danny took a deep breath. "If I do what you ask, will you leave me alone?"

Starfire looked sad. "If that is what you want, then I will honor your request, not-friend Phantom."

"Good. What do you need?"

Robin shook his head. He didn't like this. He didn't want to trust an unknown. He didn't like leaving Starfire alone with him… it… whatever. He didn't like powerful unknowns. What were his intentions? What did he want? What was he? Robin sighed, not knowing what to do, when he saw Starfire flying back to them. As she came closer, it became clearer and clearer that she was sad.

"Starfire! What happened?"

"Not-friend Phantom agreed."

Cyborg, ever the astute one, asked, "What's the catch?"

Starfire sighed. "That I leave him alone."

Nobody knew what to say to that. They knew she had an affinity to this Phantom, though they didn't know why, so in that since they were sad for her. However, they all were glad that she wouldn't be seeing him again; his hatred of heroes could not be healthy for her.

Raven cut through the silence, not wanting this chance to use Phantoms' powers to slip by them. "When are we executing the plan?"

Starfire responded. "One hour. He needs one hour to master his power. It seems to be new to him."

The Titans' were silent at this. When they met him, and from what Starfire told them, he was already more powerful than any one of them. The fact that he was still growing frightened them. This time, Robin was the one to speak.

"Titans, get ready. At ten, we take back our tower."

Danny meditated in his store. "Azarath. Metrion. Zinthos!" With that last word, books started fly all around, in a chaotic manner. 'I'm ready'.

Danny was in the middle of the living room in Titan Tower, breathing in and out, in and out, in and out. "Azarath. Metrion. Zinthos. Azarath. Metrion. Zinthos. Azarath. Metrion. Zinthos." The clock struck ten. "Azarath. Metrion. Zinthos!" CDs were flying everywhere, doors were opening and closing, and the coach even flew around a bit. 'This is the only time I'm doing this. The Titans better not disappoint me.'

He was not disappointed. Raven and Starfire took out Jinx and Gizmo, while Beast Boy took out Mammoth. Dannys' work was done. He flew back to his store, transformed back, and went to sleep.

Robin picked up Gizmo and stared at his face. "Who is Slade?"